I Fell

I am a very clumsy person. Not very glam to admit that, but I truly am. I am one of those dimwits who will trip and fall when I was walking along a smooth straight path. For no reason, my foot will give way and I would fall. If I blog about it every time I fall down, you might read at least 52 of such posts every year.

Yesterday I went out to meet some friends, and even before we had lunch, I fell down some stairs. Boy, it was PAINFUL. I rolled down several steps because I missed one of the steps and didn’t get a good footing. It was a miracle by itself that I did not end up with a bloody leg. All I got was very bad bruises. Typically, that just meant that the blood was all gathered under the skin but the skin didn’t break. All because I was wearing a good pair of jeans.

I could still stand up after the fall, though it was really painful. My knee cap especially was bruising badly. But I managed to walk to the restaurant where we had lunch and even spent a few hours chit chatting and taking photos. After lunch, my friends accompanied me to Gleneagles A&E to have a check. {That’s what happens when you have friends in the medical profession – Lilian is a pharmacist. She started rattling about hairline cracks in the bone, fractures, internal bleeding… and I should definitely get an X-ray done} So off we went.

Look what greeted us at the entrance. *heart pain*

 

I would of course show you my wound, and it actually doesn’t look that serious in this photo. But the swelling was really bad. I won’t show you the side view of my knee just in case you get too shocked by it. Just imagine an ice cream cone on my knee cap. It was that pointed because of the swell. The whole shin area was also numb because of the abrasion, and it remained numb till today. I wondered if I accidentally severed some crucial nerves or something.

My dear friends thought the whole ordeal was funny and insisted that I document a photograph of a very sad me. Frankly, it was just a very common thing that happens to clumsy me all the time, so I am not that excited about it.

Thankfully, the doctor saw my wound and said that it was not so serious and I probably didn’t hurt my bones. He didn’t think an X-ray was necessary unless the swelling doesn’t go down after 3 days.

At the Pharmacy, the nurse was dispensing my medication and my pharmacist friend came over, saw the medication and told the nurse straight in her face, ‘Take those medication back. We will not buy them.’

I stared at her blank-faced. I mean, I come see doctor and don’t buy the medication, then I come for what??

Apparently, those medications are ‘designer drugs’ – they are expensive because of their brand names, and Gleneagles typically dispense such drugs because they earn a higher profit margin from it (most of their patients are expats that’s why?). And since the medications are just painkillers and antiseptic cream which can be purchased from any pharmacy out there for low-end brands at a much lower price, she told me not to take them (which would total up to $60 by the way. And that’s on top of the A&E charges).

In the end, I left the A&E paying the consultation fees, without an X-ray (which is separately chargeable as well!) and without any medication at all!

And the funniest thing was while the swelling was horrendous last night, after putting cold compress on the swell, it went down by 50% immediately. I should have just done that yesterday.

How much does a peace of mind cost, you ask?

S$80.30

That was how much I paid for my A&E excursion yesterday. =P